Vaughan to the Haliburton Highlands: the quieter cottage country

Haliburton, and why it is not Muskoka

The Haliburton Highlands are the Canadian Shield's southern edge east of Muskoka: six hundred lakes, more forest than anything, a county seat of three thousand people with a sculpture forest on the hill above it, and a cottage culture that is quieter and older than Muskoka's — the same families since the 1950s, fewer boathouses with elevators. Vaughan families come to it three ways: the cottage week, the October drive, and the winter that Haliburton does better than anywhere in southern Ontario.

The cottage week

The transfer is the booking: a family, luggage for a week, coolers, the dog, the paddleboard, to a cottage on Kashagawigamog, Kennisis, Head Lake, Drag Lake or one of the six hundred others, on a private road with a name the GPS has not heard of. An Executive Sprinter carries it all in one trip from Woodbridge or Maple, the chauffeur takes the cottage's directions rather than its address, and the family unloads at the dock. The return is a second one-way a week later; the cottage's owner or renter books the guests' arrivals the same way. It replaces the two-car convoy or the rented van, and the Sprinter's bay is the argument.

The route is the 407 east to the 115, the 115 to Highway 35 at its Lindsay end, 35 north through Minden, and Highway 118 east to Haliburton village; the Kennisis and Kashagawigamog cottages are reached on county roads from there. The routing estimate above is three and a quarter hours without the 407; the practical time with it and one stop at Minden is under three.

The fall-colour day

Haliburton's October is the reason the Highlands appear on foliage maps: the Shield's maples over water, the Skyline Park lookout above the village, the drive along Highway 118 and County Road 21 to the Haliburton Forest, and the road through Minden's river valley. A Vaughan family or a group of friends books an hourly day in a Luxury SUV or Sprinter: an 8 a.m. pickup, a stop at Minden's Riverwalk, the village and the Haliburton Sculpture Forest on the hill (a free outdoor gallery of sculptures in the woods at the Fleming College campus), lunch, the Forest's canopy walk if booked, and a return by a different road for the colours. The Haliburton Highlands tourism site posts a colour report each week of the season.

The Haliburton Forest

The Haliburton Forest & Wild Life Reserve is a privately owned, sixty-thousand-acre forest north of the village with three things families drive for: the Wolf Centre, where a pack lives in a large enclosure with a viewing building; the Walk in the Clouds canopy tour, a guided boardwalk through the treetops; and, in winter, one of Ontario's largest snowmobile trail networks and dog-sledding by reservation. The drive from the village is forty-five minutes on county roads; a chauffeured group does the Wolf Centre and the canopy walk as a day with lunch at the Forest's base camp and the vehicle waiting.

Winter in the Highlands

Winter is the booking Vaughan families do not expect to make and then repeat: a weekend at a Haliburton resort or a winterised cottage, snowshoeing on the frozen lakes, the Forest's sled dogs, the village's winter festival, and a road that the chauffeur drives on winter tires while the family watches the snow. Highway 35 north of Lindsay in a January squall is a professional's road; a Luxury SUV with the rear seats heated and a chauffeur who has driven it in weather is the reason the weekend happens.

Vehicles

The cottage transfer is a Sprinter; the fall day is an SUV for a family or a Sprinter for a group; the winter weekend is an SUV. A couple doing a resort weekend books a Premium Sedan in summer and an SUV in winter. Booster seats are $25 each and stay with the family at the cottage. A canoe or kayak on the roof is arranged in advance.

Minden, on the way

Minden is the Highlands' second village, on the Gull River where Highway 35 crosses it: the Riverwalk boardwalk, a main street of shops and cafés, the Minden Wild Water Preserve's whitewater course in the spring, and the county's farmers' market in summer. It is the stop the chauffeur suggests on every Haliburton run — twenty minutes for the children to see the river — and the town the cottage families drive to for groceries.

Costs, in shape

The cottage transfer is one Sprinter fare each way, shown in the booking engine with the 407 included, against two cars' fuel and a rented van; for a family it is close, for two families sharing a cottage it is a clear saving. The fall day for a family is a comfort purchase — three hours each way of driving that someone else does, with the colours watched rather than glimpsed — and for a group of eight it undercuts two cars. The winter weekend is bought for the chauffeur on the winter road and the site says so plainly.

Pairing it

The Highlands pair with the Kawarthas to the south — a family does the Lift Lock on the way up — and with Algonquin Park, whose Highway 60 corridor is an hour and a half north of the village; a fall-colour weekend that does both is a daily hire the chauffeur plans as a loop. Bancroft is the same distance east.

The colour loop, hour by hour

A group of six from Kleinburg in a Sprinter on the second Saturday of October: pickup at 8 a.m., the 407 and the 115 north, Highway 28 through Lakefield and Burleigh Falls with the Kawartha lakes on both sides — the chauffeur stops at the Burleigh Falls bridge for the rocks and the water — then County Road 507 north through Flynn's Turn to Gooderham and Highway 503 into Haliburton village by eleven. The Skyline Park lookout above the village for the valley; the Sculpture Forest for an hour's walk among the pieces; lunch on the main street; the drive north to the Haliburton Forest's base camp at two for the Wolf Centre; back through Minden on 118 and 35 with the sun behind the maples; home by seven. Eleven hours of hourly hire, one number, tolls in, and a hundred photographs taken through a window that nobody had to keep their eyes off.

Resorts and where a chauffeured weekend stays

The Highlands' resorts are the winter and shoulder-season booking: Sir Sam's Inn on Eagle Lake with its ski hill beside it, the lodges on Kennisis and Kashagawigamog, and the village's inns. A Vaughan couple or family books the resort weekend as a return pair — the SUV down on Friday, back on Sunday — or as daily hire if the weekend includes the Forest, the sled dogs and the village; the resorts' forecourts are proper drops and the chauffeur has driven to each of them in weather. The Haliburton Highlands site lists the resorts by lake.

Snowmobiles and the winter road

The Highlands' snowmobile trail network is one of Ontario's largest and it is the reason a group of Vaughan friends books a Sprinter north in February with the sleds on a trailer behind — arranged at booking, with the chauffeur's vehicle rated for it — or, more simply, books the Sprinter to a resort that rents them. Highway 35 in a February squall is the road that closes; the chauffeur watches the forecast from the Thursday, leaves early or late, and drives it on winter tires with the group's weekend intact. The hourly and daily hire page explains how a stayed weekend is priced.

Pickup notes

The 407 from Weston Road, Jane, Dufferin or Bathurst, then the 115 and 35 or the 115 and 28 as the day requires; a Woodbridge pickup and a Thornhill one differ by ten minutes and the fare, quoted from the exact address, reflects it. Give us the cottage directions and loads, the Forest bookings, the resort and the dates, the child seats and the rack, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Sir Sam's, Eagle Lake and the small ski hill

Sir Sam's Ski & Ride on Eagle Lake is the Highlands' ski hill — small by Blue Mountain's standard, family-scaled, with lift tickets that do not need a second mortgage and a lodge on the lake beside it — and a Vaughan family that wants a ski weekend without the Collingwood crowds books the SUV to the inn on the lake, skis Saturday, snowshoes Sunday, and is driven home. The hill is twenty minutes from the village on county roads that are plowed but winter, and the chauffeur drives them on winter tires. It is the least-known ski weekend on this site and one of the best-value ones.

Dorset and the fire tower, on the way to Algonquin

North of the village on Highway 35 is Dorset, the hamlet at the narrows between Lake of Bays and Little Trading Bay, with a scenic lookout tower on the hill above it — a steel fire tower rebuilt for visitors, with a climb to a platform above the treeline and the lakes below it. It is the stop between Haliburton and Algonquin's west gate on the park day, and in the first week of October it is one of the two or three best colour views in Ontario. A chauffeured group climbs it at leisure because the vehicle is at the bottom and the driver is not waiting to get on.

Booking it

Book a one-way for the cottage with the return date and the directions, an hourly day for the colours, or a daily hire for the winter weekend with the resort; tell us the loads, the seats, the roof rack and the Forest bookings, and the chauffeur confirms the plan the evening before.

Book the Haliburton trip